[Gllug] Voluntary work

[Bernard Peek]

In message <p05210603bbd967e23d3c@[192.168.216.2]>, Gordon Joly 
<gordon.joly at pobox.com> writes

>
>Can we throw IP security into the pot? Yes, you can "switch on the 
>firewall". Great!! Every Windoze user is now a security expert, 
>handling servers and security....
>
>"We switched on the firewall on all our machines".
>
>What next? Sit back and have a beer? A pat on the back?
>
>***
>
>My recent experience was that I arrived with a server and two or three 
>desktops, enjoying Blaster and many other viruses and worms, Kazaa 
>running and who knows what else.

But the performance of the server was OK? If so that sort of makes my 
point. Someone with no real knowledge set up a server that got the job 
done. It wasn't optimal, but it worked.

If the same job had been done at the same time by someone using Linux it 
might easily have been an open relay server.

What offices need is a system that has all of the advantages of Windows 
in addition to the advantages of Linux. When I was running an all 
Windows site I got a little tired of people telling me that Linux was so 
much better. They kept telling me that Linux was more efficient. What 
they meant was that it used fewer processor cycles. I didn't care 
because processor-cycles are cheap. It was cheaper for me to buy another 
Windows server than to spend time thinking about Linux.

With Windows 2003 it looks as if Microsoft is learning from Linux. When 
you first install it you can't do anything useful with it, because all 
of the inessential services are switched off. So are some of the 
essential ones. You need to decide which ones to switch on during the 
install. It's too new to decide just how good a product it is.

I'm more interested in Microsoft's latest product, Small Business 
Server. That's closer to a traditional Linux distro, in that it includes 
all of the programs that a small company might want to put on one 
server. SBS is aimed at companies that want a small network based on a 
single server. It's aimed at companies that can't afford a sysadmin and 
have to rely on a "power user" to set up and run their servers.

I'd like to see how Microsoft manages the conflict between the security 
requirements of Windows 2003 and the ease of use requirements of SBS.



-- 
Bernard Peek
London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author. Will work for money.


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug